


Magic

by cedalodon



Series: The Hunter and the Hunted [5]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Blood and Gore, F/M, Monsters, Werecats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:47:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27780094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cedalodon/pseuds/cedalodon
Summary: And the next part of the hunter series is here. Have fun everyone.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: The Hunter and the Hunted [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023354
Comments: 19
Kudos: 25





	1. Tano Village

**Tano Village**

“I hate carriages.” Adrien decided after an hour into their trip. Marinette laughed, “Yeah, my butt hurts too. But it’s the fastest way to get to the village.”

“What are we gonna do there again?” Adrien asked, and Marinette raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you read the report?”

“I can’t.” Marinette looked at him confused. “I can’t read, "he explained.

“O-oh,” Marinette stuttered. It made perfect sense, considering where she found him. She should have known that. He probably couldn’t swim either.

How very cat-like. 

“Okay. Then listen. We are to investigate the wolves that have settled near Tano Village. They could be just normal wolves, but wolves usually stay away from villages. So there must be a reason why these came so close,” Marinette explained. “We need to figure out why the wolves settled there and how we’re gonna drive them off.”

“Gotcha,” Adrien replied. “I’m still a bit nervous; this is my first mission with you after all. Any tips from the expert?” He shot her a wink. 

Marinette rolled her eyes. “I’d hardly call myself an expert. I’m still surprised Alya let us head out by ourselves. But, the best tip is to always be on guard and never underestimate the monster.”

"Also, preparation is key when hunting monsters. We can’t afford to be caught off guard.” Marinette continued.

“Like I caught you off guard?” Adrien as

ked with a smirk. He probably shouldn’t have been joking about that. But, Marinette had been very blunt about their first meeting as well, and after Tikki restored her to full health, she could even view the scenario with a bit of humor.

“There is no way I could have prepared for you.” Marinette replied with a fond smile. “I know it’s hard, but try to get some sleep whilst we’re in the carriage. We are arriving tomorrow morning, and I want us to be ready for action when we get there.”

“Yes ma’am,” Adrien replied. “Good night, princess.”

“Good night chaton.”

\------

“Rise and shine, sunshine.” Marinette woke Adrien from his restless sleep. “Slept well?”

“Not in the slightest,” Adrien grumbled back, and Marinette just laughed. 

Upon arriving at Tano Village, and after meeting with the village chief who had sent the request, they settled in. And as they made their way around town, they began to inquire about the wolves. Apparently, the wolves had started to act weird around a week ago. They got closer to the town than ever before and even killed a few of their sheep.

The village barely had any defences so they needed help desperately. And with winter being right on the doorstep, they could not afford to lose any possible food source. Marinette and Adrien were happy to help. 

As the sun shone high in the sky, they headed into the woods where the wolves' tracks had been found. Marinette used this chance to teach Adrien the art of tracking.

“...do you see these claw marks on the roots? The way they lead in that direction” Marinette pointed deeper into the woods. “You can also tell from the prints in the snow if you're lucky, but it may snow again or melt and then your chance is gone. But by the depth of this claw mark, I would say they were in a hurry. Possibly scared of something.” Marinette moved over to a nearby tree. “Do you see these scorch marks? It’s probably from a fireball or another type of fire magic. I’m guessing the wolves ran into a fire mage or someone with a fire attribute. The fire would not have hurt them much, but the fire probably scared them away.”

Adrien’s jaw dropped. “You can tell all of that just from this? Wow."

“Yep,” Marinette said proudly, “and soon, you will too. Trust me.”

“I do.” Adrien replied without a moment of hesitation.

They headed deeper into the woods from where they knew the wolves came. 

They didn’t have to walk for long. 

“Now what happened here?” Marinette wondered as they entered the clearing. “Do you want to give it a try? What can you read?” Marinette encouraged him.

“Okay. There are 3 dead wolves, and they look pretty messed up. They all have pretty deep cuts as well as broken bones by the looks of it. They don’t seem to have been dead for very long; a few hours I would say. I can’t really make out anything from the paw prints because there are just too many. From what I’m guessing, a werewolf tried to become pack leader, but the alpha put up a fight. The werewolf killed the alpha and the betas to gain dominance over the pack and is now leading them to the village.”

Marinette nodded in acknowledgement. Although it took a while to get him registered as a hunter, Adrien had put the month they spent in the city to good use and had read any information that might help him with hunting. He had also learned how to wield a sword, with his very own teacher, Marinette. His analysis was also not half bad either, except for-

“Do you smell that?” Marinette asked. Adrien sniffed the air and immediately pulled a face. “What is that?”

Marinette walked over to one of the carcasses and turned it over. “An acid burn,” she explained as she pointed at the grotesque remnants of the wolf’s head. “The acid has burned away an eye and an ear, as well as most of the fur. From that, I can tell the wolf was hit from the side. Also, these are not claw marks but those of pincers, and pretty big ones at that!”

Adrien groaned. “How did I miss that?”

“No worries, you’ll get it all one day. You’re doing pretty well for someone who’s only been a hunter 7 months.” Marinette consoled him. “Anyway, it looks like we’re dealing with an insect-class monster as well as the wolves. Probably a turf war.”

“So the wolves are desperate.” Adrien said, and Marinette frowned. “Yes, and as you surely know, cornered animals are incredibly dangerous.”

“What bothers me is the sheer amount of blood here. It’s way too much for only three wolves! You are right; there are way too many tracks to make out specific ones. But, you can still somewhat make out the general direction the pack went,” Marinette explained as she pointed to her right. “That’s where the wolves entered the clearing, and they left the same way as well, but there were fewer of them.” Marinette pointed in a different direction. “That’s where the insects came from. There were fewer of them, but you can still see the marks.” Marinette pointed in the direction opposite of which they came.

“That’s also where the drag marks lead. A few of the wolves were already dragged away, most likely into their nest,” Marinette speculated.

“Then we follow the trail back to the nest and take care of the insects. We can end the turf war and the wolves can get back to their hunting grounds,” Adrien suggested.

“Good idea, but we better head back for today. We need to update our reports and send a backup request to the city. It seems the insects only moved in recently, so the colony could be small. But, you never know with insects. Better prepared than sorry,” Marinette cautioned.

“Now then, let’s-

Marinette’s words were interrupted by a green something shooting right past her head and hitting a tree behind her. The sizzling sound of acid corroding the tree filled the clearing.

They had let their guard down. 

Marinette and Adrien drew their silver swords at the same time as half a dozen ants, bigger than a grown wolf, entered the clearing from between the trees. 

“Careful Adrien. Right now we are standing between them and their food source. They are not going to let us off easily!”

“Should I?”

“No, you have to learn how to use a sword as well.” Marinette replied. “It’s not good to rely on your power that much.”

Four of the ants charged while two stuck to the back, shooting acid from afar. The first ant reached Marinette who just barely avoided another acid spurt! She skillfully danced around the pincers and sliced off one of its legs. The ant was off balance, but Marinette could not finish it as another ant attacked her from the side. She was barely able to block it with her sword.

Adrien wasn’t faring much better. Two had reached him at the same time, and he was not half as skilled at fighting with a sword as Marinette. More than once he barely escaped a pincer snapping at his head or acid flying past his head.

The battle continued, both sides at similar strength. 

Finally, Marinette managed to thrust her sword into the head of one of her opponents and was about to take out the second one, when a ball of acid hit her arm. 

“Argh!”

“Marinette!” Adrien shouted. He shouldn’t have, but he looked. The ants used the distraction to hit him in the stomach. 

Adrien's vision was blurry after he hit the tree. No wonder the wolves had broken bones. These ants were hella strong.

From the corner of his eye he could see Marinette get up and bury her sword into the thorax of the second ant.

This wouldn’t be the end of them.

“Claws out!” He shouted after collecting his magic. 

He felt it again.

The power. The strength, his strength. 

His freedom.

He balled a massive fist and smashed through the hard shell of the nearest ant, splattering its insides onto the snow.

Before it knew what happened, Adrien grabbed the next ant and threw it against a nearby tree impacting with a loud cracking sound. It wasn’t moving. 

Using his overbearing strength, Adrien made short work of the remaining insects. 

A victory.

“Lucky charm!” He heard Marinette shout, and the same wave of calmness washed over him again. It was over.

But, better not to let his guard down again. They didn’t need any more surprises.

“Are you okay?” He scurried over to Marinette now that he was back in human form. “How bad is it?” Marinette winced as he tried to grab her arm to see the damage for himself. “I’ll be fine,” she deflected with a smile. “See? It’s already healing.”

“Your lucky charm spell is amazing,” Adrien praised with awe.

“It is,” Marinette agreed. Then the pain intensified.

“Ah!” Marinette went to her knees as she held her arm tightly to her chest. 

“What’s wrong?!” Adrien panicked. 

They had to move. They couldn’t stay here. 

“Okay,” Adrien encouraged her. “Here. I’ll help you.” He pulled her up and supported her as she stood on shaky legs. Slowly, they made their way back to the village.

Hopefully there would be a healer there.

And this marks the end of chapter 1 for the Magic arc.

Hope everyone's having a good time so far!

Here's another brilliant painting from Elsie, here's a link to her twitter so go check that out: [@NoirElsie](https://twitter.com/NoirElsie)


	2. Awakening

**Awakening**

  
  


Adrien was tense.

They made it back to the village without any further incidents. But now Marinette had been in the healers hut for a few hours, and no one had come out yet.

The village chief offered to make him some tea, but Adrien refused. He could not sit calmly whilst worrying about Marinette. 

So, he waited outside the healer's hut. All he could do was wait.

\------

“So, it looks like the burn is healed. There isn’t even a scar.” the healer, an older gentleman with a long white beard, explained to her.

Marinette smiled. “Thank you.” 

“Don’t thank me. Thank your guardian angel.” The healer chuckled. “It seems like the acid had an effect on your magic. It repaired all the damage from the acid although it must have hurt quite a lot.” 

Marinette frowned, “But I don’t have any healing magic. Trust me, I would know. I have not even awakened to my magic yet.” It may have seemed like she could do magic, since she called on the lucky charm. But that was simply not the case. 

The lucky charm was a gift from Tikki. If Marinette ever needed help, she called on the lucky charm and Tikki would give her what she needed. It… didn’t always make sense to her. 

“Well, miss huntress. You have now.” The old man smiled kindly. “It appears you have an affinity for monster magic, insects to be precise.”

“What?!” Marinette cried in shock. A dark brown liquid spurted from her right wrist at the same time staining the bedsheets. 

Marinette stared at the brown splatter in utter shock. 

Fully awakening to one's magic is a big deal. Many people never found their magic, and others became famous warriors. Marinette had honestly not expected to ever awake to her magic. She had been shocked when her Lucky Charm saved her life and healed her body. But, developing these new powers had her floored.

She also had heard that awakening one's magic hurt like hell, which explained the pain from before. 

The healer continued “my guess is that your magic overpowered the insect’s magic and restored the damage. But that is mere speculation. One thing is for sure, though,” the old man smiled as his brown eyes locked with Marinette’s. “You have exceptional magic miss huntress.”

\------

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Adrien tackled her into a hug as soon as she set foot outside of the hut.

“Glad to see you’re okay too, Adrien. How long was I out?” She had to ask.

“A day. I already asked the chief to send a report and a backup request to the city. But it will take a few days for them to get here. We can wait here and defend the village if it becomes necessary,” Adrien reported. “I couldn’t write any reports though… since I can’t write.”

Wow. Marinette knew Adrien was great in many aspects. He worked hard, was honest and always tried his best. Yet, he still managed to surprise her.

Sadly, they couldn’t just sit around and wait for backup.

“The ants were desperate. There wasn’t any report of them before, which means they are new in this territory," Marinette reasoned. "They’re desperate for food and will hunt everything they find in that forest. Even if they don’t find the village, if they hunt everything in that forest, the village might not have enough food for the winter.”

Adrien was a perfect listener as well. His gaze was fixed on her lips at the very least. 

“We can’t let them hunt, or the forest will be empty in a few days. We have to find their nest and kill their queen," she determined

Adrien nodded, although he didn’t look entirely convinced. “And how do you suggest we do that? Their nest could be anywhere. We’ll never find it in time.”

“We’ll use this!” Marinette exclaimed, and before Adrien could ask what  _ this  _ was, he was hit in the face by a flood of brown liquid.

“What’s this? It smells disgusting!” Adrien exclaimed in outrage. 

Marinette was already rolling on the ground with laughter at his flabbergasted face. “That’s...,” she wheezed, “that’s my magic. Insect magic!”

Adrien gasped. “You awakened?”

“Sure did sunshine boy,” Marinette grinned. “Can you follow the scent?”

“I think so,” Adrien replied.

“Good,” Marinette smiled. “Then get your stuff; we’re heading out!”


	3. Pack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure many of you are confused about the magic system, no worries I will post an explanation after Magic. 
> 
> But if you can't wait for it then read back to the last chapter of Hunter and the Hunted, I posted an explanation in the end notes.

**Pack**

“Okay, here we go.” Marinette muttered as she channelled her magic to form the familiar brown acid. It jumped forth from her wrist and covered the deer carcass in its scent.

“Is this enough for you?” she asked the giant black cat beside her. The aforementioned cat put a hand over his nose. “Yeah,” he chuckled, “pawsitively stinks!” 

Marinette shot him a dirty look. ‘Puns? Really?’ She thought in irritation.

But Adrien seemed so delighted about his little joke that she couldn't bring herself to say anything. He could have his fun.

“Now we only need to wait for the ants to show up, and we can track them right back to their cave,” Marinette explained.

“Marinette?” Adrien tried to get her attention, but Marinette was in a world of her own at the moment.

“Then we can take out their queen and put an end to this infestation,” Marinette continued on.

“Marinette,” there was worry in Adrien’s voice now, but she was oblivious to it.

“After that, we only need to take out these pesky wolves, and then we can go home. Alya’s gonna be pissed when she learns we took on an entire insect infestation by ourselves.”

“Marinette!” Adrien’s shout broke her concentration.

“What’s up, Adrien?” Marinette asked.

“Look around you.” 

Oh. Wolves. There were a lot of wolves. A dozen at the very least.

Surrounded by a dozen or so wolves. Great.

“I suppose we can’t walk away from this without a fight.” Adrien guessed.

“No way. Look at them. These guys are half starved, and a few are hurt as well,” Marinette pointed out. “This deer is probably the first food they have seen in a while. They want our bait, and they want it bad.”

“Well, they can’t have it.” Adrien growled as he lowered himself into a fighting position, and Marinette drew her sword. “We sorta need it too.”

“If only we could talk to wolves,” Marinette sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”

Just then the wolves did something. They raised their heads to the sky and howled as a white wolf entered the circle. It was massive. It was easily thrice the size of the other wolves. As red eyes landed on them Marinette knew they were in trouble.

“That’s an albino.” She breathed out. Adrien swore.

Albinos were usually not very different from the rest of their species. Mainly they were a little bigger, faster and stronger than the rest. The most important difference was their skills.

Albinos were one of the few monsters that could use magic. Albinos often strengthened themselves with magic, becoming stronger or faster or whatever they needed.

She saw the albino opening his mouth. 

“Cover your ears!” Marinette shouted at Adrien as she dropped her own sword to cover hers. 

AHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The cry was ear shattering, but that was not the worst bit of it. The wolf had strengthened the cry with magic. It imbued the utmost fear into every being around him. 

Marinette’s knees gave in as she put all her strength into not fainting.

The cry stopped, and the first thing she did was check on Adrien. What she saw haunted her.

Adrien. Adrien was gone. 

She could see the same deranged anger she had invoked when she threw that fire bomb at him, back then when she had feared for her life and was being chased by a werecat. It was in pain, and it wanted to retaliate. 

Faster than she could see, Adrien turned into a black whirlwind that stormed toward the albino. Was he glowing?

The fight… didn’t last long. Marinette wasn’t even sure it could be called that. 

A rampaging werecat against the starved leftovers of a wolf pack chased out of their territory? Yeah, it was a massacre.

Marinette watched in astonishment as Adrien ripped the last couple of wolves into shreds. She almost felt sorry for the predators.

Marinette got up on shaky legs for what felt like the thousandth time on this trip. She had to check on Adrien.

He had calmed down it seemed. But he still had a light red shine to him, an aura of sorts that surrounded him. Marinette felt goosebumps as she approached. Adrien looked a lot more threatening right now.

“Are you okay?” she asked worriedly. Adrien seemed to have gotten the worst of the attack.

“I’m fine. Even better,” Adrien motioned to the carcasses that now littered the forest floor. “It seems we have some more bait.”

Marinette grinned already preparing to mark the corpses with her smelly acid.

“Right you are.”


	4. Queendom falls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone's having a good time! :) 
> 
> Thank you all for the continued support.

**Queendom falls**   
  


“Here we are,” Adrien informed her as he came to a stop near a cave in a hillside.

“This is weird,” Marinette stated as she slipped from his shoulders. Adrien chuckled. 

Adrien was fast on all fours. His beast form could carry the two of them faster than their feet could, and they had no issues with following the ants to their nest. His fur was also a lot more comfortable than any carriage she had ever been on.

Now to finish this.

“So, are we gonna go in, or do you have a better plan?” Adrien asked her curiously.

“The plan is simple,” Marinette explained as she started rummaging around her backpack. "We will smoke them out. There’s no way we can go in without knowing their numbers, and we don’t know the tunnels either. We would be seriously disadvantaged.”

She pulled out a few firebombs. “These should do.” She muttered to herself. “Then we only need to take care of the ones that make it out. Hopefully the queen is too deep in there to escape in time.”

Here she was, planning to burn down an untold amount of monsters and slaughter the rest, and all Adrien could think about was how beautiful she looked as her hair swished in the wind.

“Let’s do this.”

He watched as Marinette neared the cave entrance and threw the firebombs inside. She had packed a few extra for the occasion just to make sure. After the bombs were in, she sprinted back to Adrien.

“We’re in luck,” she muttered, “The tunnel went straight down, the nest is gonna burn from the inside. Get ready for the onslaught.”

And an onslaught it was. The stampede of panicked ants barely stood a chance. They were afraid and could only think to run. They barely noticed the death trap they were walking right into.

That didn’t mean the job was easy. Ants left the cave in hordes. Marinette could barely handle the ants nearest her by slicing the monsters apart. One of them got the drop on her, and she only just avoided its pincers. Her sword was useless if the ant was so close to her side that she couldn't maneuver it and swing. 

Thinking quickly, Marinette raised her left hand and concentrated on her magic. A green orb of corrosive acid formed in front of her palm and shot straight at the ant dissolving the hardened shell and innards in seconds and leaving a big hole inside of the ant.

The monster screeched in pain and finally fell over, becoming just another corpse on the ground. ‘Back to business’ Marinette thought as she went back to slicing the ants apart.

Adrien didn’t have it entirely easy either. He wasn’t as elegant as Marinette, as he relied on his brute werecat strength to tear his enemies apart. This gave a few ants the chance to counter attack. 

More than once he had to rip an ant off his back so that it didn’t bite off his head. And yet, he couldn't help but to steal a glance at his partner. There she was, elegantly dancing around her opponents and chopping them to bits. She may have been covered in various bits of innards from numerous ants, but to him she could not have looked prettier.

The snap of a maw right in his face pulled him out of his stupor, and he quickly grabbed the ant, punched into its viscera, grabbed something and pulled out. The ant fell dead at his feet, and he let go of whatever he had pulled out. 

It felt like an eternity, but finally it was over. The ants stopped coming out of the cave.

They did it.


	5. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the late update. I had a rough day at work and went to sleep right away.
> 
> Had a nice long long nap. :)

**The End**

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”

‘This is the end.’ Marinette thought to herself as she saw the brown haired storm approaching. Alya found out.

“You better have an explanation for this!” Alya stopped right in front of the hut in which Marinette and Adrien were staying. Marinette was already waiting at the door. “First, I get a letter asking for backup due to an unknown amount of ants.” Alya started poking the poor girl's chest.

“Then! I get another report saying that you two had taken it down, BY YOURSELF!” Alya was now shouting in Adrien’s direction. “Which, by the way, breaks about a dozen hunter regulations!” Alya reminded them.

“And then!” Alya continued, completely ignoring the commotion she was causing in favour of scolding the pair of fools in front of her. “Then... then I finally arrive here only to hear that you two have spent the last couple of days in the healers hut!”

Marinette winced as Adrien hid behind her. Not an easy task considering how much larger he was. 

“So please. Please for the love of all that is holy, explain to me just how this happened!” Alya demanded of the two, folding her arms in front of her chest as she glared at them.

“Well there was a turf war,” Marinette started.

“Between the wolves and the ants,” Adrien threw in helpfully.

“But the ants were hunting down all of the food in the forest.”

“And the village wouldn’t have made it.”

“So we tracked down the ants.”

“And we smoked them out.” 

“We also took care of the wolves, including an albino.”

“Then we killed all of the ants that left the cave.”

Alya was already massaging her temples to stave off her upcoming headache. “Anything else?”

“Marinette fully awakened her magic.” Adrien shouted.

“I see,” Alya replied before she grabbed the two by their ears and dragged them into the hut. “We’re gonna have a nice, long talk now. And when we’re done, I’ll kick both of your asses!”

A small whine escaped Adrien as he was dragged away. 

Marinette just smiled. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, the end. 
> 
> Again, and I cannot say this enough, huge thank you for all of your help Elsie. And thank all of you for all of your ongoing support. Both in the comments and from the [ miraculous fanworks discord server.](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks%20)
> 
> Okay, I need to get some writing done now so that you guys can have a one shot explaining the magic by tomorrow.   
> You guys may have to be a little patient with me. :)

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, a massive thank you and a hug to elsie_noir for beta reading and this time providing amazing art as well!
> 
> Thank you so much Elsie!
> 
> And thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed yourself, and that you come back for more.


End file.
